Taking up from where I had left off in the last blog on self discipline, a natural question that arises is: if passion is what it takes, how does one find one’s passion? Deeper yet, does everyone have a passion? Is there something for everybody, discovered or undiscovered, that lights up fire in their belly? What if the world is sneakily divided into haves and have-nots? In that case, the have-nots are doomed to a mundane, mediocre at best, existence. Or are blissfully unaware of the whole damn thing going about their day to day lives.
I don’t have a definitive answer to that.
I just hope there is hope for everyone as far as passion is concerned. Because, in my humble opinion, it would be next to impossible to ‘create’ passion by any means like taking classes. Not to undermine all the training available, but the best we can hope from that is that it ignites a spark which is already there. Or acquire valuable worldly skills that are transferable.
It is possible, even common, to create vision and see it through in any chosen aspect of life using reasoning, will power and commitment. Greatness, closely related with passion, another ballgame altogether – comes only through grace. One is born with it. Polishing, packaging, fine-tuning and everything of the sort is required but these are upper layers on a basic foundation – which is given.
Having a built-in knack doesn’t automatically translate into greatness, though. It’s like the perpetual interplay of destiny and free will. A person born a natural dancer may die completely unnoticed or not having danced if he doesn’t use his gift. Another great factor that makes or breaks the deal is – belief. Irrespective of aptitude and desire to achieve something, if the belief is not there or is weak, nothing can help.
So the first (and last?) cue for finding passion is to look for things you are naturally good at. If passion is found, vision gets clear with a little thought put into it. A man with passion is like a man in love – mad and blind. Opinion of the world doesn’t mean anything. Nor do obstacles on the way.
I remember my ever optimistic mother sending me to endless classes like painting, sewing, dancing etc. and I coming back from all of those as unlearned as ever (except having learnt endurance).
I remember my first employer (a huge IT company), in its enthusiastic fervor and excitement to include its associates (they never used the word employees) in creating company’s vision, held a full day workshop under the brilliant (and expensive) guidance of fancy corporate trainers. All we new associates looked at it as a sheer, brutal and unbearable waste of a perfectly nice weekend.
I also remember a wise friend of mine asking me a simple question put simply, that worked much deeper than any workshop:
“What would you do even if you are penalized for it?”
There you go!
Dinakshi
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